The Day the Earth Went Dark
by my-dearest-holmes-boys
Summary: The Doctor and Donna travel back in time and land somewhere on 21st century Earth.
1. Chapter 1

"Where are we now?" Donna asked, shielding her eyes from the sudden brightness outside of the TARDIS. The sky was blue with fluffy white and silver clouds dotting it.

"Earth! London, to be exact! And it's a beautiful day!" Donna turns to the Doctor, who was squinting around as well. "Let's find out the date, eh?" he says as he bustles off into a nearby cafe. The door makes a pleasant "ding!" as they walked in.

The girl at the counter smiled and welcomed them warmly. "Hi there! Anything I can do for you?"

"Ah, yes!" the Doctor said enthusiastically. "I know I may sound like a nutter, but what's the date?"

The girl laughed. "It's the 27th of April, 2005." She shows them to a small table near the back of the cafe. "Here's your menus. Any drinks for you today?"

The Doctor and Donna both order water and lemon and a small salad. As the waitress went to get their drinks, Donna asked, "Okay, mister. Why are we in London in 2005? This was a bad year for me. I was temping at this shoddy little company in Westminster and I-"

"Donna, let me explain!" the Doctor interrupted. Donna and the Doctor stared at each other in silence for a moment before the Doctor said, "I have no idea. I just wanted you to stop talking."

Donna made a noise of surprise and bewilderment. "Listen here, bub. I don't have to put up with you and your-"

"Here are your drinks and salads," the waitress cuts in. "It's funny. Another man came in and asked what the date was too."

"Oh?" said the Doctor. He turned his full attention to her. "Who was it? Describe him to me."

"Oh! I don't have to, he's over there. Him and his girlfriend."

The Doctor turns and looked to where she was pointing. Sitting at a table on the other side of the cafe, a man in a leather jacket and big ears was making lively conversation with a small blonde girl with big eyes. They were both laughing and gesturing wildly. The Doctor's face filled with shock and sadness as he realized who the man and girl were. He jumped up and stormed out the door. Donna put some money on the table, apologized to the waitress and hurried after him.

"Oi! Doctor! What the hell are you doing?"

The Doctor spun and stopped in front of Donna. "We are leaving. Now. We are not supposed to be here."

"Why? Who were those people?"

The Doctor looked around nervously, running a hand frantically through his hair. He paced back and forth a few steps and glanced back at the cafe anxiously. He looked at Donna with an intent stare. "That," he said with a quiver of fear in his voice, a wild frenzy in his eyes, "was _me_."


	2. Chapter 2

"And then I said, 'What about the ducks?'" Rose said, laughing. The Doctor chuckled heartily and took another bite of his banana pudding. "This is mankind's best creation. Banana pudding. I could eat this until the end of time. Fantastic." A bit of yellow goop dribbled from his mouth onto his jumper. Rose went to wipe it away with a napkin but the Doctor smacked her hand away and just licked it off.

"You are gross," Rose said with a giggle. "Absolutely appalling."

"Wotevah. I juht like bananah puddink." he said unintelligibly through another mouthful.

Suddenly, there was a ruckus on the other side of the cafe. A tall, thin man in a tan duster and a brown suit charged out the door, leaving a red haired woman flabbergasted at the table. The waitress who had served them looked quite surprised as the lady paid for their meal while apologizing profusely and hurried after the man.

"Troubles in the marriage, maybe?" Rose said, staring after them.

"I dunno." the Doctor replied. He noticed the man had dropped a little folded wallet type object. Walking over to pick it up, he heard the woman yelling after the man a couple of meters down the walk. He picked up the wallet thing and opened it, staring intently at the contents. The curiosity had turned to surprise and he took off out the door after the couple.

"Oi! You in the tan coat!" the Doctor yelled at the man, already starting back down the walk. The man turned, eyes widening in surprise and ran off in the opposite direction, the woman yelling at him to wait up and asking what was going on. The Doctor grunted, "Augh, I hate it when they run," and sprinted after them, Rose not far behind.

"What's going on, Doctor?" she asked between gasps. "Who are they?"

"Need to catch up," the Doctor panted "His paper." He waved the folded object in the air and yelled, "Hey! You dropped your paper!" The man glanced back but kept running. He turned a corner and pulled the woman along.

As the Doctor and Rose turn the corner, the couple was nowhere in sight. The sound of fading footsteps could barely be heard further down the alley.

"Whoever he is, he seems to no want to be caught," Rose surmised between breaths.

"No," the Doctor said, a look of seriousness on his face, "he doesn't. And I think I know why."


	3. Chapter 3

Donna was breathing heavily when they finally circled back to the TARDIS. They had run from the couple from the cafe and had been able to give them the slip.

"So," she started, "that guy is you? How can he be you if you're you?"

The Doctor was running around the console, hitting the controls and pulling levers but the TARDIS did not seem to want to start up. "Come on!" he yelled as he threw the rubber mallet he was using on the grating at his feet. "Why are you doing this? " he whispered into the console. "Why are we here?"

"HELL-O?!" Donna stamped her foot impatiently. "Who were those people?"

"Donna, I told you already. That was me."

"HOW? And who was Blondie there with 'you'?" Donna emphasized 'you' with air quotes.

The Doctor looked at Donna with the most intense sadness anyone could have ever mustered. He looked away and went back to the console. There weren't any sounds except the small blips and beeps coming from the buttons the Doctor was pressing.

Donna stared at the grating in the floor. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

The Doctor turned at the sound of her voice and saw that she had a tear rolling down her cheek. "Oh, Donna…"

"I didn't mean to upset you, Doctor," she said, still staring at the floor. "I'm still trying to get over the fact that we can fly through time and space and still be home in time for tea." She chuckled. Looking up, she saw the Doctor smiling. "What?"

"You," he said, laughing. "You are handling all this fine." He smiled again. "Donna, when we met, you were about to get married, right?"

"Yeah, to a jerk who almost caused the human race to go extinct to a bunch of spider things," she said with a sour face. "Bloody idiot, he was."

"Yeah, but you still came after me after all that was over. You still came with me. Right when I needed a friend most, you were there to save me." He paused, the sad look reappearing on his face. "Right before you appeared in my TARDIS, I had lost someone. I told you about that, remember?"

Donna nodded, remembering the purple jacket she questioned him about on the day they met.

"Well," the Doctor continues, "the person I lost was someone very close to me. Someone who I had grown to love. She was the first person I had really loved since I can even begin to remember." His eyes held the regret of a man who had seen and done terrible things. "Anyway, this girl was the first face these eyes saw. When I became the man I am right now. This face and form of myself hasn't always been me. I've had many faces, many lives but they are all me. That man we saw? That was the last face of mine. That was me. Do you understand, Donna?"

Donna stared at the Doctor, soaking it all in. "If I get what you're saying, you change… into different forms… sometimes?"

The Doctor grinned wide and nodded.

"Okay, then," said Donna, "how many faces have you had? How many lives have you lived?"

"Oh, too many to remember. I try not to keep count."

The Doctor and Donna stood in silence for a few minutes, each caught up in their own thoughts. Out of nowhere, there came a BANG! on the door of the TARDIS, followed by a voice. "Oi! I know you're in there! Open up!" It was the other man's. At the same moment, alarms and bells started to go off all over the console. Smoke started to pour out of the floor and surround the Doctor and Donna.

"What's happening?" Donna shouted over the din. There was a loud crash and sparks flew from the middle tubing of the TARDIS. Donna shrieked and fell backwards towards the door. The Doctor was frantically trying to decipher the readouts on the screen when an explosion threw him to the floor. Dazed and confused he felt himself being pulled out of the TARDIS. He looked around and, seeing the blonde girl, felt his hearts break. "Rose…" was the last thing he uttered before blacking out.


	4. Chapter 4

The Doctor had shut the doors to the blue police box that looked a lot like their TARDIS and was bent over, coughing. "It looks like it's trying to repair itself. He must have done something to it." He looked at Rose's face and straightened up. "Rose, what's wrong?"

"That… that man said my name," she said, he voice shaking. "Who is he? Why does he know my name?" She was confused. "Wait, why were they in the TARDIS?"

"I don't know, Rose," the Doctor said. "I really don't know…"

The lady was still conscious, sitting against the side of the TARDIS. The Doctor squatted down next to her and gave her a smile. "Hello. I'm the Doctor. Who might you be?"

"Donna," the woman answered. "Donna Noble. Don't hurt him."

"Who?" the Doctor asked. "Your husband?"

Donna snorted. "He is not my husband. We're just friends," she said quickly.

"O-kay. Tell me, Donna Noble, why did you guys run?"

Donna opened her mouth to answer but then quickly shut it. She knew she couldn't tell him. Shaking her head she shrugged.

There was a shuffling as she tried to stand but she quickly fell beck down, dizzy. "Whoa…"

"Easy there. The fumes will do that to ya," The Doctor said. Glancing back at the blue box he asked, "If you can't tell me why you ran, can you tell me what happened in there?"

"I don't know. Everything just started smoking and sparking. I couldn't breathe. I had finally made it to the door. The Doc- er I mean, _my friend_ must have hit his head or something." Donna coughed. "Is he going to be okay?"

Rose was leaning over him, checking to see if he was breathing and if he had a pulse. He had a rather large bump on the back of his head where he must have hit the floor. "He's alright. Just unconscious," she informed them.

"Good," Donna said with a sigh.

The Doctor was up and walking around the blue box, eyeing it suspiciously. It looked almost exactly like his TARDIS. And the fact that it was bigger on the inside…

"Donna," the Doctor turned to see that Donna was standing next to Rose, staring down at the man. She looked up. "Yeah?"

"What is this?" the Doctor said, pointing at the mysterious blue box.

"Um, it's a police box, can't you read?" Donna said.

"Is that what 'police public call box' means? Hmm," the Doctor snapped back. "I meant, what is it really? You and I both know it isn't an ordinary police box, Donna."

Donna fixed him with a look and put her hands on her hips. "Well, if you know there, elephant ears, you tell me!"

"I think it's a TAR- elephant ears?!" the Doctor exclaimed, immediately grabbing his ears. "Why do people keep callin' them big? The aren't that big."

Rose stifled a laugh. "They are a little, er, big…"

"Oi!" the Doctor yelled angrily.

Donna and rose both looked at each other and burst into giggles. The Doctor just stared incredulously at them and rolled his eyes. They all hear a moan and the man on the ground rolled over and tried to get up. Instantly, the laughing stopped and Donna kneeled down to help him to a sitting position. "Easy, easy," she soothed. He looked around disoriented. He saw the Doctor and tried to stand too quickly and fell back again. The look in his eyes was fear and confusion.

"Donna, we need to go," he slurred, still a little bit sluggish. "Get to the TARDIS, we have to go."

"We can't," said Donna. "It's trying to repair itself. Something happened, remember? The smoke and everything?"

The man squinted at Donna. Then he remembered. "Oh right. Augh!" he yelled, putting his head in his hands. "We are stuck now. Until it's done." He let out a groan.

The Doctor, all the while, was studying the man. Tall, thin, and young. Suddenly, something the man said hit him. "TARDIS?"

The man's head shot up. "No. I didn't say that."

"Yes," the Doctor started walking towards the man on the ground, "you did. You called that a TARDIS." He pointed at the blue police box. The man tried scooting backwards but the Doctor grabbed his shirtfront and pulled him to his feet. They were about the same height. "Who are you? Where did you get a TARDIS?" The man's jaw moved but nothing came out. "Talk!" The Doctor shook the man once to get his point across.

The man gulped and said calmly, "Gallifrey."

"Excuse me?" the Doctor asked irately.

The man straightened up and stared the Doctor right in the eyes. "I said, Gallifrey."

The Doctor's face filled with surprise and he stepped back away from the man, now steady on his own feet. "Who… who are you?"


End file.
